The Caprilicious Jewellery Blog

Hello folks, thanks for joining me today. It has suddenly gone all sunny and warm on us here in the UK, but since Monday is a Bank Holiday I can almost guarantee that it won't last. After the debacle of the Handmade Fair I decided to take it easy - one of my oldest friends was visiting me from Vancouver and I had the pleasure of having her and others who live in the UK come and stay. It was fabulous to catch up and discuss old times and find that although so many years had passed since we last met (about 40 to be precise) we had not changed fundamentally. The weekend flew by and her visit was over too soon, unfortunately. Now that we've met up, we've pledged not to leave it so long again.

I spent some time taking photographs of the creations I had left over from the Fair. I had made some necklaces using a technique taught by Loretta Lam. The beads and pods are made from a very light clay - Ultralight - which handles like marshmallow when uncured and is very light when it comes out of the oven. The beads are cured and then a veneer and embellishments are applied in stages. They float when placed in water and are light and easy to wear.

As you can probably see, the embellishments and veneers have been applied so that the necklaces are reversible. The technique is labour intensive but interesting and the necklaces are chunky but light, different and most definitely fun.

This necklace was literally made from left overs - a veneer from a class I took in March, canes from last year, a sunflower from a tutorial written for Bead and Jewellery magazine and some orphan beads in my collection of beads that I made earlier on and didn't use up. The lady pounced on it, and tried it on - that was it, love at first sight! She refused to take it off, bought a pair of earrings to go with it and wore it around the show. I hope she gets a lot of enjoyment from it, bless her cotton socks!

I was given carte blanche to modify this necklace into something a bit more sophisticated by a client in India. She came to my show, made a few purchases and came back for more - on the second day, she carried a bag of beads which she trusted me to take back to the UK and modify in my own time, at my own pace and to my own design. Now that's a whole bowl of trust! And I mean to deliver to all her expectations, of course. These are rather beautiful tourmaline beads, but strung together on cheap thread, with an adjustable gold thread 'clasp' and don't look terribly special.

I added rice pearls in a random manner to bring a bit of brightness to the necklace, and a beautiful diamante clasp to one side to take the degree of sophistication up a notch and I hope you'll agree that it makes the necklace fit for a queen. The lady I am designing for is sophisticated, smart and smouldering with a distinctive style of her own. Her style is certainly unique and she dresses like a diva with well thought out, dramatic accessories. I think this one will suit her personality down to the ground.

I spent the rest of the week at a conference in Leeds related to the day job and am due to be involved in some very interesting and exciting developments. Have a lovely week, and I'll catch you next weekend, same time, same place.Until then​xx

Hello folks, how are you today? It has been a week since The Handmade Fair and fortunately I had some time off from work to recover. It was one hell of an experience, and I thought I'd write about my time adventure honestly, so that anyone thinking about exhibiting there in future can read about it.

If I had found this blog post by Jes Hooper before I paid to show at The Handmade Fair, I might have had fair warning of what was to come. Unfortunately I only read it a week before I was due to exhibit and although this brought my enthusiasm levels down to a trickle, I was prepared to give the Kirstie Allsopp machinery the benefit of the doubt. Well, at that point I had no other choice.!​​After all, Jes' blog was about Hampton Court in 2016, right? And surely the organisers would have taken his comments on board, right? His experience must have been almost universal across all the vendors, so surely they would have paid attention and sorted it out, right?WRONG!!

This was the little space I rented for three days.

This was the quotation in the original blurb :- 1.5m x 2m @ £567.00 +VAT 1.5 x 3m @ £805.50 +VAT 2m x 2m @ £756.00 +VAT 2m x 3m @ £1,130.00 + VAT4.00 +VAT I was being very careful with my outlay (sensibly, as it turned out) so I rented the smallest space available, and had been warned that Wifi, power and 'furniture' would be extra. In the event, Wifi and power added another £120 and I also had to buy public liability insurance, so the grand total was about £800. We also had to factor in the daily drive to Ragley Hall which is about 35 minutes from us and petrol costs.Included in the costs were :-

v 20 complimentary fair entrance tickets

A thick wooden shell which was strong enough to hold shelves, and hooks - if we left the walls in a mess, we'd pay £100 to have them repaired

Hard wooden floor and carpeting throughout the marquee

24 hour roaming security

Complimentary car parking

Inclusion in the show guide

An online profile on The Handmade Fair website which included photos, copy and links to my website/social media.

Marketing and PR support such as promotion on social media, opportunities to be involved in competitions and newsletters, blog posts and more

An unlimited supply of show leaflets and posters

Back in January, when I saw the ad for exhibitor applications I was about to get on a plane to India, and sent in a link to my website. When I got back I was pleased to hear that the organisers thought Caprilicious was a good fit and my application had been accepted! Oh joy!I spoke to the organisers and asked if anyone had actually looked at my website, and why they thought it would be a good fit, and all the right noises were made. So, I went ahead with the deposit and started to whip myself into a frenzy of excitement. New creations rolled off the press and I didn't bother to put them on the website as they were earmarked for the Fair. A while later I got the show manual, detailing all the other costs. I had to work through it to decide that I didn't really need any 'furniture'. The paperwork said if I wanted to paint the walls another colour, I could pay extra; I could paint them myself, but would have to pay to have them repainted at the end of show, I could have Wifi, I could have power, I needed to fill a risk assessment form, I needed to provide a declaration, I needed to buy public liability insurance for up to 5 million pounds - the list went on and on and at first it seemed like they were going to even charge me for the very air we breathed, and rain was an optional extra too - someone must have paid for it, as we had plenty!​ I had to read the paperwork over and over, and finally found the relevant bits and paid for them within the multiple deadlines specified.​ I was approached by Mollie Makes who were sponsoring the event, as well as the makers of the Annual asking if I would pay for an advertisement, but I had to decline as there was no budget for this.

SHOWTIME!!

We were allowed to set up a day before the show, so Mike and I drove down and were a bit taken aback by the stark reality of the tiny space. I immediately revised my plan for setting up and put more on the walls as I realised there would be very little space on the table - indeed it was fractionally too big and had to be put in on the slant. I put a couple of little tables out in front with a cloth over them to increase the space available to me. I decided to take the jewellery in in the morning, as I had not purchased 'security shutters' - which turned out to be a sheet of cloth stretched out over two wooden poles with padlocks on them! That would have cost us approximately100£!

We set out nice and early on Friday morning and my friend Gabbie agreed to meet us at the fair to help set up. The traffic had other ideas, with three separate mile long traffic jams, and we were late.​Oh jeez, what a to do - the car wasn't allowed near the marquee as we were half an hour past the deadline, the security guys at the gate were rude and obstructive, I was nearly in tears and just about ready to turn around and leave when I found Freya, one of the organisers - she was cool and collected, got one of the men to help me carry all the gear in, and we set up in twenty five minutes flat. I had no clue where anything was in my boxes as by then my head was all over the place, and without the assistance of my three trusty helpmates would have been completely lost. As it was, we got the last tweak in place and moved the boxes out of the aisle just as they declared the fair open.

Open Sesame

And suddenly, there she was! Kirstie Allsopp, who opened the Fair, glided down the aisle like a regal swan, surrounded by minders, minions and cameras. 'Any minute now, she's going to wave like the Queen Mum', I said to Mike. She stopped at prescribed points smiling widely at the cameras and continued along her way out of the marquee. And that was the last we saw of her. She went off to do some talks in the auditorium but was gone as far as we were concerned! If anyone was hoping for a bit of celebrity endorsement, they weren't in luck. The same thing happened with Liz Earle the next day - she was around for even less time than Kirstie, and we never even caught a glimpse of Patrick Grant although we were assured that he was around. I certainly wouldn't recognise him if he bit me on the ankle.​Kirstie's input at the Shopping Village was so minimal, it was almost unnoticeable and all the stall holders who had come to 'Kirstie Allsopps Handmade Fair' were more than a bit disgruntled. However, in the official photographs released later on it appears as if she was everywhere like a rash, smiling and waving and having a great old time with her public - these will undoubtedly be in the sales pitch for next year and a whole load of new exhibitors will fall for it. A few people who had booked into her talks in the afternoon waited to see her, but the exhibitors, who had also come a long way to meet their idol who was after all the big draw, were very disappointed. Of course we did not expect her to stop at every stall, but a hello and a stop and chat at various points through the day would not have gone amiss. Everyone felt very let down and deflated by her non appearance.​Indeed, she could have done with taking a few lessons from the Queen Mum on how to be gracious!

Not Handmade

The Foreword by Kirstie Allsopp on the Fair Annual

What annoyed us exhbitors, and some members of the public most (if one reads the Facebook feed) was that some vendors were reselling pre bought items. There was a lady two doors down from me selling silver jewellery - it was so obviously made in India and was as handmade as if someone bought a meal home from a restaurant and claimed that it was handmade in a kitchen by the chef.There were people selling raincoats from Ireland, and tagua nut jewellery from Columbia, Himalayan Salt lamps to name but a few items which were obviously made elsewhere and bought in by the dozen as well as people reselling handmade items that they had bought from others. If one looks at the foreword of the annual, the goods for sale ought to have 'been lovingly made by the exhibitors', but many of them simply weren't. It irked us artisans who had worked our fingers to the bone to have to share space with these people.It became obvious that as space remained vacant, the organisers had filled it with just about anybody who was willing to stump up the cash rather than reduce the size of the shopping tent. I do know that people on Etsy in the UK were being contacted by the Handmade Fair Company and given a load of flannel, telling them how wonderful their products were and asking if they were interested in signing up at the last minute. It is of course initially exciting and flattering to receive an unsolicited email such as this, but these people were smart and consulted one another before signing on the dotted line. Fortunately (for them) they had read Jes' blog, and that put them on guard. A link was posted in the thread of the Etsy vendor's conversation - which is how I found it, alas, only too late!

I spoke to other exhibitors who were all uniformly annoyed about the same things as I was - the etiquette of not moaning about the show seemed to have evaporated by the end of Day 2. Everyone had something to say about Kirsties vanishing act and the preponderance of non handmade items.The other gripe was the £6 parking charge levied on the visitors - this meant that they all arrived as early as they could, to spend the maximum time possible before they went to the talks and demos - I was surprised at the number of people who walked in at 930 am.​However, this meant that everyone was exhausted by 4 o'clock and went home. The exhibitors were left with very few people in the grounds after that, and we twiddled our thumbs till six o clock closing time. Perhaps the parking charge should have been halved after lunch and people who didn't want to come to the talks/demos could have dropped in then, just to visit the shopping village.There were also simply too many jewellery stalls which made me think that the curating of the show could have been managed better - I counted at least ten stalls selling jewellery - if properly curated, there should not have been more than 3 - 4 stalls selling similar items as this is not fair to anyone.

The Positives

I met a lot of folk and spoke to hundreds of browsers. For an introvert, that is a major achievement in itself! I speak to a load of people in my day job as a doctor, but that is a very artificial situation. Here, I present my very soul on a plate and ask for peoples indulgence, whereas as anyone (including me) who has visited a hospital knows, a doctor - patient conversation is a completely different kettle of fish.Almost everyone who stopped by, whether they bought my jewellery or not, thought it was fabulous and colourful. Some of them even went so far as to say that mine was the best jewellery stall in the place, mainly due to the colourful display (I bet they say that to all the boys!).​ People said that my jewellery had the WOW factor, that it spoke to them, that they were drawn to my stand like magpies - however, the sales did not overtly reflect this. Perhaps Caprilicious was not right for the Handmade fair and a bit too colourful and 'in-your-face' for middle Englanders.Perhaps London is where I will find a larger concentration of Caprilicious Women - the things people admire and comment on is not always the same as what they buy. It may also be that the people there were just researching ideas for their own crafting endeavours, in which case I wish them well. They might have done better to look on Pinterest than wasting their money coming out to the fair.The other jewellery exhibitors were mainly selling tiny silver pieces, which though undoubtedly attractive, do not make for an extremely colourful display. Some people even stopped by to say that even though they didn't wear jewellery, they wanted to tell me how attractive they found my display. This was heartening as I had spent a lot of time researching it and had worked hard at being creative in putting it together in such a tiny space.I handed out a lot of business cards - some people were a bit overwhelmed by the number of stalls and were exhausted by the time they had been around once. I might have done better to pick a stall near an exit - walking down a long aisle to come back to me once they had been around all the stalls must have been exhausting for them and I'm sure I missed a few sales through that. However two people have already contacted me and bought jewellery online, so the business cards are already working their magic.

Some of my pieces are hard to photograph and it may be difficult to imagine what they would look like when worn - they need to be handled and tried on first. I sold quite a few of those to ladies who seemed delighted with their purchases and walked away wearing what they bought. Some of my chunkier pieces have sat on my books for a while and were snapped up at the fair by ladies who loved them. I would be the first to admit that they can sometimes be a bit daunting, but I love creating them and wear them quite happily myself.

The Handmade Fair company sent a young girl who had only been working for them for a couple of months to ask us if we wanted to register for next years show. We were offered a 'loyalty discount' if we booked straight away with an option to cancel by June. The exhibitors next to me pulled out this years paperwork and found that the price quoted was exactly the same, there was no discount - unless of course next years price has gone up, which would be disgraceful!Some people signed up as they found it too awkward to speak their mind knowing that they could cancel once they went back home, but others, like me, said thanks but no thanks straight out. I explained the reasons for my decision that I have enumerated here - it wasn't her fault, poor girl. She said 'Kirstie isn't here because she had filming commitments', but I wasn't having any of it - Kirstie had a commitment to the Handmade Fair and should have been around to make sure that it went well. Throwing us a few minutes of her time just wasn't good enough. Unfortunately this experience has put me off large scale exhibitions that are commercially run to line someone elses pockets. There was no thought to the care and attention given to producing our exhibits and we were pitted against people who were reselling someone elses assembly line goods.

I've had a week off to recover. My oldest friend, whom I've known since I was four is coming to stay from Canada and as I haven't seen her since we left school in 1976 I am very excited. A few more friends from school will be joining us so I shall be very busy this weekend. One of them had me create the jade and silver necklace and earrings in the picture above for her, but then asked me for studs as well, so this is what I came up with during the course of the week. I hope she likes them, I actually prefer the original ones. What do you think??Have a great week and I shall catch you next week, same place, same timeUntil then,​xx

Hello folks, as this post appears in your inboxes, I shall be setting up at The Handmade Fair in the grounds of Ragey Hall. I've had the week off work to get organised and have been racing around preparing for the show. The weather forecast has never been watched as anxiously as it has this week and of course the weathermen are predicting low pressure and thunderstorms. Aw shucks! But surely the intrepid British won't be put off by a little thing like rain? We shall wait and see.

Earlier on I had planned a couple of necklaces and decided to make them even though it was going to be a last minute attempt. It felt like being back at medical school and swotting for exams right until the very last moment - I even used to read my notes in the car while my mother drove me to the exams, convinced that if I didn't I was sure to fail.

I made flowers from copper clay and that kept me busy all weekend. Copper clay seems to be much more forgiving than bronze and is easier to manipulate. I spent a load of time sanding and polishing and refining until the flowers went into the kiln and I could do no more. Oh joy! two of them came out looking perfect with a beautiful ready made heat patina which I decided to keep, and simply covered over with wax polish for posterity. The third one predictably, was a nightmare - it split during the first firing, so I held it back and repaired the split, and in the process accidentally broke off the bail. I then had to replace that with a new bail, all the while holding the piece like a snowflake - and believe me, it is very difficult to file a snowflake or attach something to it.In the end, it came out of the kiln looking as if nothing had ever gone wrong with it and butter wouldn't melt. I breathed again. The necklaces were kept deliberately simple as a contrast from my multi strand pieces, to be able to offer differing designs to my customers. I made the clasps from a design tutorial by Kristine Schroeder while waiting for the flowers to sinter in the kiln.

I had a few pairs of earrings planned, and this was as good a time as any to make tham up.

These dragonflies were sent over from the USA, but I bought the wrong ones - there was no hole to hang them from.They languished in my stash until I decided enough was enough and that I should follow my own slogan - 'have wire, can do'....I wired the dragonflies to colourful circlets and hung them on sterling silver earwires. A couple more pairs of earrings, and I was done. I announced that the tool kit was closed and embarked on the mammoth task of organising my jewellery into piles to take, and piles to leave behind. Unfortunately the minute I decided to leave a necklace behind, it threw such a tantrum that I was forced to give in and add it to the box that was going with me, until in the finish I had only a few pieces left in the drawer at home. This of course, would only make the task of deciding which ones to display harder on the day - I knew that but simply could not find it in me to leave my babies at home.

A Tiffin Carrier Trolley

For those of you who don't know what a tiffin carrier is, it is a lunchbox, usually stainless steel, in 3 - 4 tiers which carries a lunchtime hot meal. The boxes are packed in a cylindrical PVC case, and collected by a 'tiffin carrier wallah' who delivers it to the educational institution/ office in time for the midday break. He then collects it after lunch and takes it back to wherever it came from.

I saw a friend use a make up box that closely resembled a tiffin carrier and I sent away for one - so here's my jewellery case for the show. It packs away over 100 necklaces. My tiffin carrier trolley is now all filled up and ready to go.

We were allowed onto the site to set up on the day before the show - we took some of the heavy stuff like tables and chairs to the stall. The approach road to the marquee was about half a mile long through luscious greenery and we got to park up close to it and offload the contents of the boot.

The marquee was a hive of activity with people setting up all around us. ​I found the forlorn little space allocated to me and a little bubble of hysterical laughter welled up from deep inside. It was so tiny that just putting my handbag into it seemed to half fill it up. And I had paid an arm and a leg for this tiny space!! Now what?? My table refused to go into the space and had to be put in on the slant. I wish I had seen this earlier, I'd have got some little shelves to put on the walls. The brochures all show the larger stalls with shiny happy people, smiling all over their faces in what appeared to be acres of space. Now, a quick rethink of the set up was required, including the contents of my tiffin carrier case.

This lady was opposite me, she probably wasn't too happy to be placed so close to another jewellery stall. I, however was not bothered as my jewellery is completely different to hers and our client base will not be the same. The Caprilicious woman wouldn't wear her jewellery, and I daresay her customers wouldn't touch my jewellery with a bargepole. I went over to chat to her - her stall is bigger than mine, but only by a tiny bit and she had paid the equivalent of three limbs to my two, for it. She told me to go to Ikea and buy another smaller table, and that mine was sticking out into the aisle, 'so you will need to get permission from the organisers.' There's no way I was going to buy another piece of furniture that I won't have storage space for at home, and might never use again. My table, although on the skew, will not be in the aisle when I finally set it up.

There's even space for me to sit behind my display although getting in and out may be impossible - ah well, I'll work that one out when I need to. Perhaps I shall just sit there, imprisoned by my jewellery! Or, swing out over my display on a rope like Tarzan, which is how the vendors in the vegetable markets in India get in and out of their overstocked stalls. ​You can see the rope dangling from the ceiling in the foreground of this picture, that the vendor uses to swing in and out of his stall - the first time Mike saw this he was gobsmacked - he got the guy to go back and forth just to reassure himself that this was really the way it was done, and left him a hefty tip which caused my mother to go into meltdown at her profligate son in law!

Mike got busy putting up my banner and drilling in some screws to hold picture frames in which I plan to display some of my necklaces. And then, we were done. I didn't take any stock as a night sheet with padlocks to cover the stock for security would have been an extra outlay. I had already paid extra for Wifi, for a plug point to recharge my phone if required and run my PayPal card reader as well as a couple of spotlights, and stumped up for public liability insurance for up to £5 million. So, just an arm and a leg, and a few fingers off the other hand, then!

I came home and collected all my bits and bobs together in the middle of the living room floor and went slightly green about the gills - there was just so much to carry - display items, packaging, jewellery - and all to fit in such a tiny space! We looked at each other and shrugged, we shall just have to grin and bear it. I have always tried to do the best I can in every endeavour and this will be no different, if it doesn't go well, it won't be for lack of trying.​I shall post pictures as I go along, so do take a look at the Caprilicious Facebook page or Instagram feed. I will catch you next week with a full update. Have a fabulous weekend, and look out for me next week, same time, same placeUntil then​xx

Hello good people, I hope the sun is shining on you wherever you are. The countdown to the Handmade Fair begins and I am busy sorting out my display and props so that I can make a creditable attempt to reproduce a boutique look in my tiny space of 1.5 x 2 metres. I have been looking at ideas and picking the best jewellery to make the highest impact.​ I have had to resist the impulse to put everything out on the table and create a jumble sale effect, or wear everything I've got like the sunglasses salesman in the photograph which I took at a tourist spot in Mysore, India.

The tiny shops in India are crammed with goods, with everything from fly - swats to flowers, and follow the rule - 'stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap'. I, on the other hand need to strive for a degree of sophistication, and the mantra 'less is more' plays on in my mind over and over.

We drove up to Ragley Hall on Sunday just to make sure we find it easily on the day and are not struggling with Sat - Nav's on top of everything else. The pile certainly is imposing - sitting on top of a small hill, with gently rolling greenery surrounding it and a drive through some very pretty, very ancient English villages.

I've got a few days off over the weekend and next week and plan to put the final touches to the pieces I have selected and tag them with prices and pack them up ready to transport. In the meantime, I busied myself with wire and produced a couple of little pendants. It brought back to me how much I love wire and have missed it. Both pendants are inspired by the designs of the most generous Nicole Hanna, with a twist in the design introduced by me.

I embroidered and soutached (is that a word??) around carnelian flowers and stitched them onto a leather strip to make a cuff bracelet held up by an aluminium core.

A couple of necklaces and I was done for the week.

And now I have to go and lie down, having caused myself to become so anxious I'm practically hyperventilating!! The thought of the Fair being so close I can almost smell it is a bit scary. I was so calm earlier on, I don't quite know what's happened to me, all this hand wringing angst is not really my style. I shall speak to you next weekend, same time, same place - until then, have a fabulous week, see you soonxx

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I'm Neena Shilvock, and I'm crazily addicted to jewellery. I've been designing and making quirky and interesting statement necklaces for the last five years and my passion hasn't cooled off one little bit - in fact it has got worse, such that I'm even dreaming jewellery.I'd love to get to know kindred spirits like you, so drop me a line and I'll get back to you, and who knows, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship. Write to me at jewellerybycaprilicious(at)gmail.com

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I am very proud of my body of work and what people say about it, here are some of the compliments I have received

'Neena,the necklace has just arrived & I can't find enough of the right words to do it justice. Somehow "stunning" "gorgeous" "exquisite" don't seem to fit the bill! It's definitely a statement piece ..................' LJ

'Wow received my jewellery to day. Love them, so beautifully presented in a pretty green box and many thanks for gift of earrings, lovely, thanks :-)' AT

'Hi Neena, just been busy all week at a folk festival.....my Mme Butterfly drew lots of admiration, as did my Ice Queen and someone leaned over the counter in a store of healing and crystals and exclaimed at my beautiful lapis. I so enjoy wearing my pieces and the attention they receive. ' LB

' Neena, I can't describe how delighted I am with Scherezade - she is simply breathtaking.' EW